Romance at 375 Degrees
by LadyEllowyn
Summary: College AU Boffins. When a crucial paper is deleted off his flashdrive, Bofur seeks peace in the communal lounge only to find someone baking cookies at 3 in the morning. Who on earth did that? Even if Bilbo's snickerdoodles were divine...


Bofur cursed all professors who give essays over ten pages. He also cursed flash drives that deleted all his work the night before it was due. He had only finished four pages, but that was four pages farther than he was now. Bofur wandered into the communal area of his floor with a grumble.

Nori had kicked him out of the dorm at 2 in the morning and Bofur was tired of sitting against the wall in the hallway. Bofur found that he wasn't alone when he saw one of the residents moving through the kitchen. "Hey." Bofur called out a greeting, slinging his bag onto one of the armchairs.

That made the other occupant jump and swivel around. "Sweet juniper berries!" They cried out and nearly dropped a pot, which was thankfully empty. He had wide, startled blue eyes, curly amber hair, and freckles sprinkled over his nose. "Sorry, sorry…" Bofur apologised, moving towards the kitchen. "Didn't mean to startle you so bad."

When Bofur turned around the side of the island, he realised what he was doing. "Are you making cookies? It's the middle of the night!" He exclaimed, looking at all the baking supplies laid out on the counter. "Says the guy who's also awake in the middle of the night. There's never a bad time for snickerdoodles."

Bofur nodded sagely. "Fair enough." Bofur looked over the items at hand before picking up the mixing bowl and giving the spoon a few turns. "What goes in next?" He asked. The other man looked surprised. "Well, the corn syrup, eggs and vanilla…" He said slowly. "You don't need to help. If you don't want to, that is, I'm not saying you can't or anything, you are your own person and everything…"

"I don't mind!" Bofur laughed deeply. "I used to help my little brother with this stuff all the time. I'm practically a master mixer by now." The other man shook his head and began measuring corn syrup. Bofur cracked two eggs into the bowl, using one hand, as to be impressive. "Something I learned in high school Home Ec." He stated proudly as the other man splashed in some vanilla.

They added in the dry ingredients, and true to his word, Bofur mixed it excellently, which earned him a wry smile. They put the bowl in the refrigerator next to someone's leftover mac and cheese and left it to chill. "After an hour, it should be good to work with." The mystery man said.

Bofur nodded and went back to his bag and took out his laptop. He looked at the half-filled page of his document and sighed before taking a book out of his bag. "Since you helped me…" The blonde ventured. "I can help you with that. It's a paper, right?" Bofur smiled. "If you know anything about sub-surface mining, be my guest."

"Oh, it's the paper for Professor Radagast? I'm actually an Botany major, so I've taken a few Environmental Science courses. Are you doing the pros and cons or is it just an informational paper?" Bofur could almost feel a weight lifting off his shoulders.

"It's informational." Bofur said with a slight smile. The blonde sat down next to him and began to give him pointers. "Make sure you mention the wildlife impact. Professor Radagast loves wildlife mentions." Bofur made a mental note of that and added it to the outline he'd build off of to make his paper.

After an hour of working on the paper, Bofur was nearly two pages farther and it was definitely a much better paper than it would have been without the baker's help. Bofur watched his new friend's butt as he moved to the kitchen and almost felt himself melt. What a cutie with a bootie. He was witty and smart and oh gods he was totally his type.

Bofur followed him, after he picked his jaw off the floor. They rolled snickerdoodle dough into balls and then covered them in cinnamon sugar. Bofur arranged them on a cookie sheet and popped them into the oven. "Thanks for helping, again." Bofur shut the oven door with his hip. "It's no problem, as long as I get a cookie."

They spent some time in silence, rolling cookie dough in cinnamon sugar and putting them on trays. Soon, the first tray was out of the the oven and Bofur almost couldn't help himself. He grabbed a cookie and nearly dropped it, passing it hand to hand.

Once his hands were no longer in danger of being burned, Bofur took a big bite. It crumbled into his mouth, light and buttery and sugary. "Marry me." Bofur moaned and the baker laughed. "So scandalous. What would my parents think?" Then a look passed over his face. "I've known you for like three hours and I don't know your name. My name's Bilbo. Bilbo Baggins."

"The name's Bofur Broadbeam. There's a number that accompanies that too, if you'd like." Bofur winked as Bilbo blushed bright red. "You only like me for my cookies." He teased, even as his face heated up. "Hey now, your cookies may be the new meaning to my life, but you'll be a close second." They both laughed together as the kitchen timer dinged. And then they leaned in and shared a soft, tentative kiss.

Bofur begged Professor Radagast the next day to extend the deadline, because Bofur never did finish the paper that night.


End file.
